This invention relates to illumination of body components using light with selected wavelength ranges and selected illumination time intervals.
Phototherapy involves generation of light by suitable light sources, such as light emitting diodes (LEDs) in the visible and infrared ranges to provide various benefits for a patient""s body. The photons produced are absorbed by the body through the skin, the eyes and acupuncture points. Connective tissues in the body conduct the light to deeper tissues and organs. By taking advantage of optical properties of biological tissues, suitable wavelengths of light can be delivered to, absorbed by and used by the body to activate metabolic functions.
Treatment of a body using light irradiation requires a choice of several important parameters, including wavelength range, relative distribution of the wavelengths within the range (spectrum), time interval for continuous exposure, time interval between two continuous exposures, time rate of energy delivered, accumulated energy density for exposures, body component(s) irradiated, and many others. Choice of the appropriate parameters for a given human or animal subject has proved elusive.
What is needed is a method and corresponding system that provides appropriate illumination for a body component and appropriate choice of the relevant parameters and that distinguishes between treatments for different medical purposes. Preferably, the method and system should provide for, and distinguish between, initial treatments and maintenance treatments for a given medical condition and should cover a large number of, if not all of, conditions that are believed to be treatable using illumination.
These needs are met by the invention, which provides application of radiation in selected wavelength ranges to selected body components using a controlled sequence of exposures. Any two consecutive time intervals of continuous radiation exposure are spaced apart by a xe2x80x9cdark fieldxe2x80x9d time interval whose length is at least equal to a threshold value, in order to re-establish a randomization of electron transport and distribution resulting from application of photons during a continuous exposure interval. Radiation is delivered to one or more selected body components, and at selected points on a body, using an enhanced focussing system that increases the efficiency of delivery of the radiation.